A remarkable rise, BJP joins Bengal club

0, 3, 77, 206. These four numbers of seats won by BJP in West Bengal in the four assembly elections since Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power in 2011 tell a remarkable story. But beyond the numbers, the party's rise over 15 yrs also highlights its ability to first create a demand among the state's electorate and then tap into it. Mamata Banerjee's political skills as an angry 56-yr-old leader that helped her topple the Left Front government and that, till now, kept BJP at bay, failed to match her administrative skills in government. Didi's mixture of the Left's trademark conflation of party with all aspects of public life, and her own brand of 'minority appeasement' only served anyone willing to challenge it. BJP did, and an anti-incumbent electorate rewarded it.

If 2021 was seen by many as BJP's failure to breach Fortress Bengal in the name of Brand Narendra Modi, the election also laid the ground for its 2026 triumph where the party became the option for a majority for multiple reasons that included - but not confined to - Hindu consolidation in a Bangladesh-bordering state. Unencumbered by TMC cadre coercion, and arguably helped by a more 'streamlined' voters' list by SIR - that may have affected TMC's Muslim support base more than others - voters chose to move out of TMC's gravitational tug. After decades of going 'ekla cholo re', Bengal has thought it fit to give joining the national political mainstream in the form of BJP governance a shot.

The incoming government has a job set out for itself. For one, after a false start in 2011, voters want a real 'poriborton'. This means many things to many people. But among non-negotiables would be getting a fix on Bengal's notorious political culture (sic) that has over decades prior to a TMC government normalised suspension of law and order at the altar of politics. Also at stake is making the state a wealth creator free of 'ransompolitik' and institutional corruption, and making it a stakeholder in the larger India economic story. All this won't happen overnight. But neither was Calcutta built - or damaged - in a day.